Mercy for my Beloved
by Flying Phoenix Fire
Summary: One Shot, may continue if there's interest, from a Legionary's perspective. When he's faced with a harsh reality that is part of the world in which he lives. OC x OC


From my Legion OC, Octavian's perspective. Further Details at the bottom. Please Read and Review! Thanks!

* * *

**Felicia's Last Breath**

I never thought I would find myself like this. In a downpour, watching the very life I adored slip from it's body. I couldn't feel anything, numbed by the experience. The only soul in the vicinity was mine and hers, who was slipping away from me as I could only watch feebly. Her body shuddered in the cold, tears mixing with the rain that drenched us both. She coughed, straining and gasping for air. I couldn't move. Not now, not ever, I felt from this spot.

Though in a last effort, she hung her head, looking to me from her cross. Her once lively eyes now dulled by the searing pain that coursed through her body. It wasn't her fault. She shouldn't be up there, though as is way of this cursed place I have called home.

I was born into the Legion. I will die of the Legion.

The rain soaked my hair, as it clung to my head. I could feel the rain on my face as I looked up to her, my eyes pleading with her, hoping that she would understand why I could not cut her down. Why couldn't I save her. Duty, loyalty and all those other ideals that have been ingrained into my being, the didactic instruction of my mother warred at one another, rendering me useless.

"l-l-love…a-al-wa-ay-s…" She breathed, as though understanding my anguish. At that point, I didn't know if it was just the rain that soaked my cheeks, or the salty tears of my own. It was then that I couldn't take it anymore. The sledge that pounded the nails into her hands and feet lay at the foot of her cross.

The handle was slick, and with great trepidation, I could barely grasp it, my whole heart and soul rending my insides to shreds. I looked up to her again, and she weakly nodded. The sledge was heavier than I recalled. It could very well be due to the weight of emotion that was upon me at that moment. I bit my lip, looking up to her, echoing the sentiment that she spoke to me. I was a fool not to actually tell her that before this moment.

"D-d-do I-I-t…" she pleaded.

Those words would echo though my psyche for years. I knew it. "I do this out of…" I couldn't speak the word. Could love be such a powerful force just to have it end like this? It was a meaningless force, one that would rip the woman I loved and adored from my very arms, and now pleaded with me to end her suffering. I wavered, nearly dropping the sledge on my foot. Not like it would matter anyway, I couldn't feel anything.

"P-p-pl-ee-ea-ss-se". Her teeth chattered from the cold January rain.

If only I could take her down from her cross, wrap her in my arms, I would do so. Save her life, though I couldn't. I didn't know how. Even if I could pull her from the cross, she would bleed out and even doing so would tear her to shreds. This was the only option. To grant her mercy. It was the least I could do.

I took a deep breath, raising the heavy hammer and slammed it with all my might into her legs, breaking them. Even though suffocation wasn't a favorite way to die, it would end her suffering a lot faster. As soon as the hammer made contact, her body slumped, and she started sputtering further. The sledge crashed to the ground, just as my knees did so. "I'm so sorry…so sorry."

My chest heaved, I too gasping for air, but for a different reason. I was loosing the only one I ever loved. I didn't care that she couldn't bear children. It didn't matter to me. My private fantasy of having a family seemed ridiculous when that's what I had for the past three years between my dear Felicia and young Makayla.

If it wasn't for that seven-year-old girl back at my quarters, I probably would've let myself stay there, in the shadow of the corpse of the woman I loved. Probably getting a deathly cold. It would be an hour after her last breath was taken that I moved again. I was frozen, my eyes downcast as I couldn't bear to look to her again. I had lost everything that night, even the will to live.

Makayla was sound asleep when I got back, sleeping like an angel. Even in my darkest hour, I could still find hope in that little girl I saved only a mere three months before I met Felicia. I changed out of my soaked clothes and curled up on the bedroll, tears still leaking from my eyes.

I laid there for hours, staring at the entrance to the tent, just waiting for her to walk through it but to no avail. It was over. I knew that, but it didn't stop the feeling from happening. I felt that the only thing that could warm me up was her, curled up like we had been for the past three years. Instead there was nothing but the sound of cold rain against the tent. For all I knew it was just a sound as the dampness could be felt through it all.

As though a break from my melancholy thoughts, Makayla started to cry, and crawled over to me in terror. "Bear kill." Is all I could make out from her sobs. I just held her close, rocking her in my arms until she fell asleep once again.

Her sweet innocence brought peace to my tormented soul. If only I could be worried about such minor things as bad dreams and that was all. I envied that, furthering my promise to myself that she would never see the harsh realities of the system I brought her into. To keep her innocence as long as possible.

She stayed snuggled up to me through it all, and I but brushed her light brown hair from the side of her face to plant a soft kiss to her cheek. She's all I've got left now

* * *

January 2281

This is from the viewpoint of my Legion OC, Octavian (who is an underling of Vulpes). Felicia was given to him as a personal slave, after proving himself in the Mojave in 2278. After three years, she failed to produce any children, and was sentenced to death because of it (There were other tries and attempts by other men, much to Tav's displeasure, though it didn't help anything).

Makayla is a little girl Octavian came across on his way from Flagstaff, Arizona to the front shortly after the first battle of Hoover Dam. Instead of being thrown to the wolves, Octavian came across her just after a Legion raiding party basically killed her mother and drug her father away to join the ranks. Taking a liking to the little girl, she became a "slave" of his, though did well to hide her from the realities that were of the Legion.

Octavian, Felicia and Makayla are all my characters.

Fallout: New Vegas and all components thereof belong to Bethesda and Obsidian.


End file.
